12:16 pm
9 Feb 2026

At 35, Marche Makes Maiden Major Semi At Windy City Open

9 Feb 2026

Marking his 20th year on the PSA Squash Tour, France's 35-year-old Gregoire Marche survived an 82-minute battle against 6th seed Marwan ElShorbagy at the 2026 Windy City Open presented by the Walter Family at the University Club of Chicago to earn a spot in his first-ever major event semi-final.

In a match full of incredible shot-making, amazing retrievals and intelligent play, Marche drew on the energetic Chicago crowd to produce one his best performances in years to move into the final four.

The Frenchman started the better of the two in the opening game and tried to put work into the legs of Elshorbagy early in the match. Marche squeezed errors from the world No.8 and took the game 11-9 to take an early advantage. Elshorbagy's intelligent play made Marche worry in game two. The Englishman started to utilise his front-court weapons to hurt Marche but it was the Frenchman who earned the first game ball at 10-9. Elshorbagy, however, battled back to eventually take the game 14-12 and level the match.

The pair then shared the next two games, both 11-9, to send the tie into a thrilling decider. The rallies throughout the third and fourth games were long and arduous, with both feeling the effects heading into the final game. Elshorbagy moved ahead on the scoreboard, looking sure to be booking his spot in the semis. Marche continued to push Elshorbagy into the corners of the court and continued to retrieve Elshorbagy's attacks. Marche moved to 10-8, eventually winning 11-9 from a backhand drop to claim a third-ever win over the former world No.3 and reach a first career major semi-final.

"I had to wait almost 36 years to make my first semi-final in a Platinum, I just have to take some time to realise this," said Marche.

"Because I have had so many battles in the past with Marwan, I lost so many of them in the fifth and when I was 7-3 down, so today I just tried to avoid all of those mistakes that I was doing.

"We had the same kind of match as well in Shanghai, I think I was 8-2 down and I came back to 9-9. But this time it is my turn, and that's sport you know, one day it is yours and the other day it is not, all credit to Marwan today, I just love these kinds of battles and that is why I play squash, it is all about fun and I enjoyed it."

Marche's opponent in the semi-finals will be Egypt's Mostafa Asal after the world No.1 made light work of up-and-coming Englishman Jonah Bryant in three games.

In the women's event, Nour ElSherbini booked her spot in yet another Windy City Open semi-final, a sixth in total for the eight-time World Champion, after coming through a quality five-game clash with Malaysia's Sivasangari Subramaniam, keeping her title defence alive.

ElSherbini stormed out of the blocks in game one, firing the ball in short and testing the movement of the Malaysian No.1 early in the match. Once ElSherbini found her rhythm of hitting winners, the game was over quickly, 11-6 to the No.3 seed. Subramaniam wanted to show the Chicago crowd that she herself could hit winners just like her opponent, and that she did. The world No.6 rattled off the points and held off a comeback from ElSherbini to equalise.

The next two games followed a similar pattern to the first two games as ElSherbini responded in true champion fashion to lead 2/1. Subramaniam raced out to another strong lead in the fourth game and sent the match to a decider, for the first time in the pair's match history.

It was the No.5 seeded Malaysian who started the stronger again in the deciding game. Subramaniam ran out to a 4-1 lead but after making an error that would have seen her lead 5-1, Subramaniam's momentum weakened. The Warrior-Princess has been in this position so many times and used that experience to navigate her way to match ball, eventually winning 11-8.

"Well yeah, it's never easy playing Siva," said ElSherbini.

"She's playing amazingly this week, and we train together, so we know each other's game very well and the same style of play. It wasn't comfortable on court, but I just tried to push every point and a win is a win, so I'm just happy to be through. It's a huge boost for me.

"I've been in this situation many times so this helped me a lot. 4-1 down in the fifth is a long way to come back, but I tried to think point by point, so I was just wanting to get the next point so calming down helped me in the fifth for sure."

ElSherbini's win has set up a mouth-watering semi-final clash with world No.1 Hania El Hammamy. The top seed needed just three games to down Belgium's Tinne Gilis, to maintain her 100% appearance record in major event semi-finals since 2023.